Advertising, and in particular sponsorship, used to be a simple process. A brand would buy the rights to put their logo on a team and would enjoy the returns of being associated with a sport franchise, mostly via TV air time. However, with more than a billion photos uploaded a day, along with videos, the metrics have changed dramatically. To the point that sometimes, exposure on social media far exceeds any TV broadcast. With far richer engagements and a life span that extends sometimes weeks…

Snapchat is moving from sharing moments to exchanging memories. Via a new feature released yesterday, the ephemeral photo company now gives its users the possibility to save snaps for later exchange and enjoyment, breaking its own foundation. With that move, it shoots back at its biggest threat, the Facebook/instagram/WhatsApp conglomerate in what has become a worldwide battle of tech giants for where consumers share their photos and how. At stake, the perceived multi-billion dollar mobile advertising market. Who we are Just within weeks of Evan Spiegel declaring in…

It all started in a classroom. Somewhere a teenager thought that exchanging info during a class using Snapchat would be foolproof because if caught, the item had already been deleted automatically. From there, Snapchat took off. Feeding on tweens insatiable appetite to communicate secretly between each other a million times a day without being caught, either by peers or authority, the ephemeral photo app became a sensation. So much so that today, it is poised to take rank in the otherwise very closed club of…

Tell me something I don’t know. Every year, this is the challenge raised by the LDV Vision Summit in front of an audience made of experts in their fields, scientists, researchers, founders, CEO’s, investors and pundits. And every year, the same reaction: Wow, I didn’t know that. The 2016 edition, which just closed a few days ago, did not disappoint. In a field where breakthroughs are seemingly far between, there is still room for anyone to discover research, studies, applications or companies that reveal yet another…

A fresh order of quesadillas, the crisp scarlet tablecloth, upbeat music playing in the background … and a patron, standing on a chair to take the perfect Instagram picture. With the proliferation of photo-sharing apps like Instagram, such a sight has become a common scene at restaurants, drastically impacting how restaurants operate, market themselves and even serve customers. As Instagram continues to flourish, serving over 400 million active users, restaurants are presented with a surge of user-generated content—and a plethora of opportunity. Despite the constant evolution…

At first look, they seem similar. Both allow to take and share pictures and both have seen an impressive adoption growth. But it doesn’t it take too much of a deeper dive to realize that both platforms are also vastly different. L2, a business intelligence firm tracking digital performances of brands, just released a new in-depth study, showcasing usages of both platforms by more than 280 luxury brands across nine categories. From organic reach to advertising opportunities, the study reveals key points crucial for anyone…

All the numbers have been pointing upwards. In fact, a recent analysis shows that Instagram will be used by one in three people, in the US, by 2020. With 400 million active users today, it is the only platform where people exclusively take and share visual content and nothing else. It is an extremely well-guarded wall garden ( more so than Facebook) which jealously keeps its traffic internally by making posting ad sharing from third-party location either impossible or very cumbersome. However, in the last…

Considering the anticipation, VR has a lot to live up to. And with companies like Samsung or Facebook leading the charge, it is poised to enter people’s lives with big fracas. But, however cool the technology appears to be, it has yet to convince that it can take a predominate space outside of the gaming word. One major issue is the lack of interaction: beyond scrolling around in space, left right, up and down, users are left being passive viewers of what can often be…

The 2015 year ends pretty much as it started. Some promises were delivered, some fell short. At least for now. With mobile continuing to dominate as the number one gateway to the online experience and visual being its strongest appeal, one would have thought that visual tech would have exploded by now. But not yet. At least not at full capacity. While image advertising has taken a foothold on all major social media site, with Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest adding a “buy” button within photos,…

Facial recognition has been around for a while. At first and for a long time, it was only used for auto-tagging familiar faces on social media and in photo albums. Meanwhile, security agencies and law enforcement found that it could become an invaluable tool in their ongoing battle against crime fueling its development, to the dismay of civil liberties organisation. But it is not until very recently that the field has discovered that it could bring much more, in the form of hard advertising cash. Beyond…